WHAT IS AN ARTFUL LIFE AND HOW DO I GET ONE?

“A good life may be found through craftsmanlike engagement with the actions, objects, and relationships of ordinary experience, through caring about what you do.” Robert Pirsig’s 1970 bestseller “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.”

Heady stuff but not exactly a Pirsig discovery. The idea of finding meaning through making things, and creating a thoughtful everyday environment was preached by Victorian William Morris and followers.  

"TROUT" artist: Melissa Greene, Deer Isle, Maine

In the 1980s, mine was the “story of the week” in Upstate Magazine, a piece written by Ron Netsky and titled “An Artful Life.” The cover story meant “free publicity” for Dawson Gallery but I confess I didn’t give much thought to that title. Now I am consumed with the questions: what IS an artful life? who decides? is it some romantic concept? is it attainable? at what cost? 

Melissa Greene and her partner Eric Ziner were my house guests this week during the four day Memorial Art Gallery Fine Craft Sale. Melissa and Eric along with their two sons live on a 60 acre farm on Deer Isle, Maine.  Their artful life is one worth examining. 

Both Melissa and Eric are artists. Eric came to blacksmithing/sculpture through DNA. His father was a graphic designer and sculptor. Melissa — like the apostle Paul — was struck by a career vision while living in Europe. She discovered that Laplanders had a reverent, democratic, respect for aesthetics that was woven into the culture — an awareness that visual delight was as imperative as function. Melissa throws exquisite pots covered with intricately detailed nature and human narratives.

"LOON" bowl, artist: Melissa Greene, Deer Isle, Maine

Melissa and Eric found one another, moved to Deer Isle, Maine (an island with a history in the American studio craft movement. It’s home to The Haystack School of Crafts.) and began Yellow Birch Farm. They are certified organic growers of vegetables that they sell through the local farm market and their own farm stand. They tend, breed and milk a herd of forty goats. Goats’ milk is raw material for the yogurt, cheese and soap they make and market under the Yellow Birch Farm banner.  Several years ago, they teamed with a well-known chef and began a farm-to-table special event dinner service. Last summer, in their barn-turned-dining room,  they played hosts to fourteen of these dinners. Guests are served a fixed menu, planned and prepared to showcase the rewards from their gardens along with meat, fish and poultry sourced from other island producers.

This is all incredibly labour intensive work and they rarely hire outside hands. They screen applicants for four summer intern slots filled from agriculture programs throughout New England. Interns live on the farm during the eight weeks of summer, learning the inside running of an active farm — on the job training — while they earn school credits.

Remember — this is a couple of artists. Yes, they make art. Melissa’s ceramics are prized possessions among the famous and not-so-famous collectors of American studio craft. Eric builds fanciful sculpture but just as often, fulfills orders for functional iron projects such as stair railings and fire screens. Both lead workshops and lecture in their fields. An exhibit gallery space is carved out of the “dining barn.”

Does all this sound like an “artful life?” It most certainly is meaningful labor. Any of us could make a list of pros and cons based on this brief run-down. We might guess that there is absolutely no financial security, that things like health care — illness or accident — can push them right over a cliff.  Age becomes an enemy when constant physical exertion is the primary asset on a farm and while some people might sneer at the free labour of interns, those who have experience working with novices question if time spent training ever equals quality effort expended.

What are the upsides? Freedom of choice? Total independence? Unique near-religious partnership with nature? Self reliance and therefore, stronger — and appropriate — pride and sense of self?

In the search for a quality life, these are trophies that most of us chase. But must we all abandon our offices and return to the soil to claim legitimacy? Frankly, I consider overnight stays in Holiday Inn the definition of “camping.” I don’t particularly like goat cheese but I love goat milk soap and I know just the places to go to buy it!

"The Smithsonian Pot" 

Melissa and Eric have another item in their “pro” column and that is meaningful connectedness.  Their life is one of circles — individual but overlapping, sometimes temporarily with narrow  objectives, i.e. the organic farming community, the very tight civic institutions and connections in their small, isolated  town, and of course, the studio craft world.  

Rebecca Solnit in her collection of essays (“Call Them by Their True Names”) writes about political manipulation — the “Ideology of Isolation.” She lays out a convincing argument that American individualism is a tainted ideal — it probably never existed as portrayed by movie westerns. Building on that mythos allows easier manipulation through tactics all too familiar in today’s political climate. It’s easy to cash in on mass fear when the ears that take in misinformation have no counter balancing point of view!  (There’s a reason prisoners’ of war are kept in isolation.)

Call it “love” or “network” or “friendship” or what-have-you. Connections require work to introduce and energy to maintain. They require compromise and acceptance of human frailty. Connectedness requires trading a piece of individualism for the good of community. 

Artful life? I believe it rests on a triangle: meaningful work, connectedness to a community and respect for the role of beauty in everyday life.